One of my fondest New Orleans memories is stumbling out of a show onto a busy Frenchmen Street and walking right into a generous crowd of folks dancing, clapping, and cheering along to a second line brass band that was playing on the street—not usual here or in my then-Florida home, but a very standard sight in the Crescent City.
I do love me some brass, but I especially love when modern brass bands take the characteristic NOLA-style second line sounds (Afro-Creole traditions fused with German and French military instrumentation), and infuse them with fresh musical influences. Two of these bands—one an old-school NOLA native, one newer school and birthed from the Windy City—are coming to Seattle this week. Both should demand your attention, and each possesses their own distinctive flavor.
Rebirth Brass Band deserve at least some credit for bringing second line marching band sounds into the mainstream (or at least as mainstream as brass-driven music gets). A virtual New Orleans institution, Rebirth was originally formed in 1983 in the Tremé neighborhood, as led by tuba player Philip Frazier and bass drummer bro Keith Frazier (their music is heavily featured in the HBO show named after the neighborhood). Rebirth fuses second line sounds with soul, jazz, funk, hiphop, and amid their original material (“Do Whatcha Wanna” and “Feel Like Funkin’ It Up” are high quality fan favorites), they add the occasional cover, like The Jacksons’s “Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground).”
In addition to the Fraziers’ low-end double-punch, the band lineup includes two trumpeters (Glen Andrews and Chadrick Honroe), a trombone player (Stafford Agee), tenor sax man (Vincent Broussard), and a snare drum player (Derrick Tabb). You might know a few Rebirth alumni, too, namely co-founder Kermit Ruffins (if you watched Treme, he made regular appearances), and “Treme Prince” Glen David Andrews.
The ensemble plays two shows—one early, one later—at Tractor Tavern this Saturday night.
LowDown Brass Band, on the other hand, are younger (they’ve been operating since the early ’00s, together more than 15 years), and hail from Chicago instead of the Crescent City (where the second line was born). But like Rebirth, LowDown was formed by a low-end blowing brassman, sousaphone player Lance Loiselle, as inspired by his love of NOLA brass traditions. In fact, LowDown started out as a New Orleans cover band before emcee and friend Billa Camp was welcomed into the fold and the music took a more original turn. As far as sound goes, LowDown Brass Band is heavier on the hiphop swagger and lighter on the jazz, and also incorporates funk, neo-soul, Latin, pop-blues, and reggae sounds into their brass sonicscape; setlists touch on originals (“Grind It Out” is a righteous fusion of bumpin’, high-energy marching band brass and beats, stealthy grooves, and breezy rhymes) and LowDown-stamped covers of tracks like “Can I Kick It?” by A Tribe Called Quest, and Roy Ayers’ “Everybody Loves the Sunshine.”
In addition to Loiselle and Camp on sous’ and rhymes, respectively, LowDown’s lineup for the Seattle date encompasses two trumpeters (Sam Johnson and Shane Jonas, the latter also on vocals), two trombonists (Andrew Zelm and Matthew Davis), a sax player (Dave Levine), and drummer (John Barbush). They perform this Thursday at Nectar.
More below.
